To make my position clear, Snake River salmon and steelhead are far more valuable than any gold or any royalties (that won't be charged), but I try to deal in reality here at the Salmon Blog and reality dictates that these gold mining proposals will eventually be approved. Look into the mining law of 1872 (current law of the land) if you doubt me.

I would rather they wouldn't wantonly destroy these places that harbor gold and happen to be underneath or in very near proximity to very precious salmon and steelhead streams. But simply because something is a foregone conclusion, Midas Gold will get the approval to attempt to extract what they believe is $11 billion in gold and other minerals from the Golden Meadows project at the old Stibnite site east of Yellow Pine in my home county of Valley County, Idaho, does not mean you roll over and let it happen and it does not mean you fall on your sword and attempt in vain to stop it. We must adapt our position to create the best possible outcome in light of the reality that a lot of companies get to lower mountains, raise valleys and relocate streams. Capiche???

They plan to de-water the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River (what does that mean?) Well, I've explained this before back in that mitigate post. Anyway, what they want to do (you see gold is sitting there underneath the stream bed) is move the stream from its natural course and run it through a tunnel through or next to a mountain. For the salmon that spawn above this proposed tunnel it will be like my family road trips to New Jersey when we went through the tunnels in Pennsylvania. No, it won't be like that at all. It will be horrible, but I already know that the mining law of 1872 trumps endangered species (what doesn't these days?) Mining companies do this all the time, you see, they need to get around those diabolical "obstacles" like the Clean Water Act or the Endangered Species Act or whatever and so they come up with the most imaginable ways to avoid the fines. Next time you are in the middle of nowhere and you happen upon a concrete ditch, chances are good some mining company put that in place to avoid the water going over all the toxic waste tailings (yes, those tailings you are standing on wondering why someone built a lovely concrete ditch in the middle of nowhere).

So, what we need to do is at the very least maintain our dignity when these Canadian (because they make it easier to organize a mining company) mining companies come down here to the lower 48 or over in Alaska or if they go to Hawaii to take our natural resource wealth and remove it at our expense and their enrichment, we need to put things in place that at the very least are our best attempt to secure the very best companies are the only companies that can do this.

This is why counties like mine, Valley County, and states like mine, Idaho, and countries like mine, USA, USA, USA, need to enact whatever they need to enact to ensure that some hefty royalties are paid to you and me for any mineral or other natural resource extraction by any company and especially by foreign companies who literally are (how do I say this to get a segment of the population that normally roll their eyes at me to hop on board? where was I?) who literally are redistributing our wealth to less wealthy nations. Yes, now you see the American flag flying behind me, don't you? Well, some of you are slower on the uptake.

Foreign companies and domestic ones have been extracting our collective (sorry, I never should have used that word) wealth and we aren't getting much for that. They are doing it all over this country and we just sit around wondering why we are pathetically and woefully in debt and lamenting the lack of a new real estate bubble. We just sit around going we are an immensely rich nation and one party (the one's who disagree with me the most) has a solution (which isn't one) to open even more land to more resource extraction without getting anything in return beyond short-term (non-union, which means poor pay and benefits) jobs. I'm not even sure many in the other party (that probably agrees with me a lot here) has even thought of this business of setting up proper royalty payments for any mineral or resource extraction and also the establishment of proper bonds to ensure when these companies go belly up (many do) you and I aren't footing the bill to clean it up (like we did the last time at Stibnite, some $13 million on that one creek and it ain't all cleaned up yet). I have the DVD at home, yes, someone actually filmed it, sorry to say you footed the bill for that film too.

So, you can discount me as off my rocker or you can think for a second. Number one, we don't want fly by night operations taking risks they have no means to cover destroying our natural heritage (royalties and appropriate bonding ensure they can't participate). Next, we don't want perfectly healthy companies to structure themselves in such a way so as to extract all the wealth from us and then have their acting subsidiary go belly up after the last transfer payment is made to the head company leaving us the taxpayer with the bill to clean up their mess (it does happen people, like all the time, so wake up). Setting appropriate bonds (and those bonds are larger than anything being asked of these companies by our federal agencies even though the ones today are higher than they were 15 years ago) fixes that problem.

If we don't change the 1872 mining law (and there is little to no talk to do so) then we must acknowledge mining is going to occur, but it sure as hell does not have to occur in the manner the company first proposes.

Royalties and bonds are the two best insurance policies to ensure we get the best there is in the world of mining (which ain't great but better than the fly by night operations financing this crap on credit cards that we allow to traipse about our national forests and BLM lands) and we must also hold our managing agencies' feet to the fire to ensure these operations and their proposals are audited line by line from an environmental standpoint and changed to create the proposal with the least amount of environmental destruction and the least amount of environmental disaster risk. And we must further hold our federal agencies' personnel to the fire when it comes to monitoring these projects far more thoroughly than anyone in that business has even imagined.

To those who scream, "that will make it too expensive," EXACTLY, if they can't afford 10-15 percent royalties and a bond of 15 percent of the proposed value of the extraction, then they shouldn't be turning over dirt in our forests. To those who scream, "we need the jobs!" We need our dignity more. And I promise you will see better jobs all around you the second you start standing up for yourself and not just accepting the first offer from these companies. (Someone out there is yelling at their computer screen about tax base, well, hold on junior, tax base additions aren't a foregone conclusion considering every time you turn around some politician or body of politicians are waiving whatever tax obstacles that stand in the way of this or that fly-by-night organization that can't bear to make a simple tax payment after extracting $11 BILLION DOLLARS FROM YOU AND ME WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY DIDDLY SQUAT!!! I hope that was clear. Was it?

It takes better politicians, too. They probably have to enact some things to make all this possible, and in Idaho they typically don't enact much, most opinions issued by courts here have to do with Idaho being silent on the subject. Well, Idaho politicians can sit around wondering why we have all these resources and no money and the ruling party can claim it is due to too much federal encroachment in our business, or they could go about putting appropriate policies in place that ensure the people of Idaho get proper payment for allowing others to come in here and take our resources. There is a better way, but people actually have to do something for that to happen (and they are people in government, so it's probably a non-starter in Idaho).

The Golden Meadows project at the old Stibnite mining site east of Yellow Pine being proposed by the Canadian mining company Midas Gold will likely be approved, but there are many things that need to happen before the rubber stamp comes down due to the 1872 Mining Act being the operating legislation.

I would like my home county, and my state and my federal government to not be (for lack of a better term) schmucks on this approval. This project, which will be a constant threat to Snake River Chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout, not to mention the environment, the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River, the South Fork of the Salmon River, Meadow Creek, Johnson Creek's ingress/egress route and the Salmon River, claims they plan to dig out some $11 billion with a B from this area in a 14-year mining operation.

Naturally, that number is about as accurate as you predicting the exact number of games each Major League Baseball team will win in 2020, but that is the claim and therefore, since I am sure the laws will not prevent this from happening (it shouldn't happen, because gold isn't as valuable as those fish or streams or the general environment) but since it will happen I want to start talking about the appropriate royalty amounts.

After all, this company is coming into my backyard or every Valley County resident's backyard and planning on extracting $11 billion with a B in wealth from us and I want to know what we get in return. Jobs are not enough, no thank you, if the proposal is only about some short term jobs, then forget it. No, Valley County's commissioners need to begin right now discussing the appropriate royalty amount they should charge Midas Gold for being allowed to come into Valley County and impoverishing us by $11 billion with a B. They are taking $11 billion from us, what do we get in return? Jobs are not enough, no thank you and if you are on the commission in Valley County and you think that some short term jobs are enough and nothing else, please stop being a schmuck. It's our wealth, they want it bad enough to work for it, but they (Midas Gold) should pay us a royalty for it.

The state of Idaho, should also not be schmucks on this deal, because this Canadian company is planning on impoverishing the state by $11 billion with a B as well, and if the promise is just short term jobs, no thank you. They want our natural resource wealth and there is an appropriate rate at which we the people of Valley County, of Idaho and also of these United States should be paid for that privilege we eventually will give to Midas Gold to extract our wealth.

The royalty fee in total should be in the neighborhood of 10-15 percent of what Midas Gold actually extracts. That royalty fee should be tied to the price of gold at the time of extraction and paid within a reasonable time frame of say 90 days. That royalty shall not be diminished by company expenses, it shall be the percentage of the actual amount of whatever mineral they extract. This royalty shall not be used in exchange for a bond, which should be posted before this project begins and set at 15 percent of the projected earnings and shall be paid out immediately to the responsible agencies upon Midas Gold's failure to continue its operation (these companies generally structure themselves in a way to allow the sub to go bankrupt leaving you and me taxpayers to foot the bill of reclamation, no thanks, bond needs to be $1.6 billion at a minimum).

So, now we get to the part where the three levels of government fight over the 10-15 percent royalty, which would be $1.1 to about $1.6 billion. Naturally, Valley County should get half, the state should get 35 percent and the federal government should get 15 percent. There you go Commissioner Gordon, I just funded your roads and schools for the time Midas Gold is taking away our natural heritage. And I funded a whole lot more than that. If this project is as valuable as Midas Gold has claimed, then a royalty of 10-15 percent and a bond of 15 percent shouldn't be spectacular hurdles? Should it?

I know, I know for some reason the idea of standing up for yourself in the public sector has been stripped away over the years, but if you don't stand up for the people of Valley County, the people of Idaho, the people of the United States then we are going to continue exporting our wealth to other countries and sit around wondering why we have a national debt of some $16 trillion.

I would rather these mining companies would consider cleaning up the area first and having some modest mining component in their plan to make a modest profit, but that isn't the case and so since the case is going to be full on landscape destruction they need to pay me and everyone who fits the description of Valley County resident, Idaho resident or United States citizen appropriately for the very great opportunity we have provided for them here.

The irony of this is I'm listening to Dwight Yoakam's remake of North to Alaska as I'm loading up these homework files for you. "And where the river is windin' big nuggets they findin' North to Alaska, go north the rush is on." Just say no to the Pebble Mine. OK, moving south to my home county in Idaho. The rush is also on in central Idaho and with an archaic law hamstringing the agencies presiding earth will be turned over, rivers polluted, fish and wildlife endangered, humans endangered in the name of short term jobs and further wealth extractions from this country to others, but I'm not wanting to taint your opinion so early in the process. This is about the Midas Gold project Golden Meadows at Stibnite and some indisputable facts will always apply to mining; there is no getting around the scar they will leave and mining remains and is likely unbeatable as the number one toxic polluter in the U.S.

Read the files I have posted below and start asking questions that you would like the answers to. I'll come back later to issue some opinion laced with facts from these documents, but for now Salmon Blog Nation you have some homework to do.

Have you seen the news lately? It is loaded with articles about Columbia/Snake salmon and steelhead and people are getting back on script about what is the only real solution to saving the wild salmon and steelhead of the Snake River Basin. That would be the breaching of four lower Snake River Dams. It does my heart good to read these things, while I was sure I was not a lone voice crying out in the wilderness (if I'd read one more article about spill, I would have been convinced I was) it has been heartening to see that the actual solution (which involves a few things done by us and then getting out of the way to allow the wild salmon and steelhead to recover themselves) is still being bantered about by others and also in big media. (Sure we can call them big media, if we call big oil, big oil, then we can call big media, big media)

Real quick, because it has been the holiday season and you might have missed these various articles here's the one that seemed to get the ball rolling from the Seattle Times (The Extraordinary effort to save sockeye salmon). Then there have been some really good posts over at Save Our Wild Salmon, seriously good stuff here and here and here. The first one of those especially as I have been desperately trying to get that point across with just about every sentence I form here. And then the Idaho Statesman got on board a train it never left since 1997 with another call for breaching here. And tomorrow it seems the Lewiston public will be treated to the first day of a two-month long exhibit brought to them by Washington State University design students; look for "Alternating Currents," at Cafe Sage in Lewiston from Dec. 6-Jan. 31. Read about it here. And while you are at it go visit the Friends of the Clearwater, because they do great work and alerted me to the exhibit in Lewiston.

And finally (kind of feels like the Academy Awards around here) the Idaho Conservation League is doing a good thing by suing Midas Gold who wants to reopen Stibnite in search for gold. Stibnite is an old mining town in my home county that springs to life when the price of gold goes through the roof. Midas Gold, a Canadian Company, is the next company to try to make a go of it at Stibnite. The problems are potentially numerous and let's be honest and realize that Stibnite hasn't been properly reclaimed from the last bunch. Maybe Midas Gold is the cleanest mining company ever to come around, and maybe they won't go bankrupt when the gold runs out (or when the price plummets again) and will stay around for many years after reclaiming the area in the greatest mine site reclamation ever known to man. Maybe. Maybe the Payette National Forest will demand the appropriate amount of a bond so that if they tuck tail and run rather than tuck their tailings somehwere safe, 14 years from now when this regime says the mine will be done, kaput and finished it can be reclaimed properly with or without Midas Gold. Maybe. But there are serious problems that this lawsuit could at the very least bring to the proper light. The operation is located in the upper stretches of the world's first river named by a property attorney (The East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River) no, seriously, that's the name and it probably has made more than one cartographer quit his job.

For those of you who sort of pay attention to things, the East Fork of the South Fork (for short, rimshot) is sort of recently famous in that a main tributary (Johnson Creek, now there's a good solid 'Merican name, or the South Fork of the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River) is the place where the Nez Perce said now wait a minute we've got hatchery Chinook making it with natural Chinook and we ain't seeing any problems. See, not only do I give you the proper names, I also provide context.

And therein lies the problem. We've got Chinook in this stream and Johnson Creek. Steelhead and bull trout are there too. This E.F.S.F.S.R. (for the government employees out there) dumps into the South Fork of the Salmon River (Chinook, steelhead, bull trout, kayakers). The kayakers aren't endangered, well individually, many of them are when they take on these streams, but not as a group or in the context of the Endangered Species Act. And the South Fork of the Salmon River dumps into the Salmon River and that leads to the Snake River and that leads to the Columbia River and then we get the Pacific Ocean.

Anywho (hate's a strong word, but don't you just hate people who use anywho?), geography buffs, this gold mine has some serious potential for environmental damage and at the very least this lawsuit should bring those risks to light. Perhaps it is also being filed to test this company's resolve or this company's financial resources (they do seem to get an enormous amount of articles that read like investor solicitations in the local paper) and these are important things that need to be tested. Why? Well, Valley County has not and may not recover from the last group that came in promising the world, who then disappeared leaving enormous debt, displaced unemployed workers and families and a resort that relies solely on its very good homeowner's association. So, it is good to see if this company has resolve and if this company has the resources. If they can't handle a lawsuit, then they sure shouldn't be allowed to start turning over dirt. So, again, recent news has really been rather pleasant.

So to sum up, there have been a lot of things happening in the let's save some wild salmon and wild steelhead world that are right down yours truly's alley (these are fat fastballs about mid-shin high and inside to a left hander, we golf those out of the park in case you wondered). But in case some of this stuff escapes you, do you remember your salmon history from about eight years ago or so when the Bush Administration wanted to count hatchery fish with the wild fish to determine if a fish should be on the Endangered Species List? Well, don't lose sight of this, because someone seriously needs to tell the Bonneville Power Administration that the Bush Administration left office in early 2009 and the Obama Administration is about to start its second term and hatchery fish don't count toward delisting. Sorry BPA, they just don't.

Thank you for coming to my blog about restoring wild salmon and steelhead in the Snake River Basin. At times, I may write something that is either controversial or something you do not agree with (this being America and all). In no way, does something I have written that you disagree with make you a victim. You are reading my opinion and if you disagree, that's not earth shattering to me. I expect that you might disagree. Disagreement is not something to be avoided. It's how we can learn. We learn by making mistakes and by listening to each other and figuring out where there are holes in our worldview. And everyone has gigantic gaping holes in their worldviews, including me and you. That being said, we continue to destroy our world. We need to stop doing that. You may argue jobs are important, and you are correct, they are important. However, our world and the health of our environment is far more important than some temporary job that your corporate master will take from you the second they see a better bottom line somewhere else. Consider that fact as we continue to destroy our world and as you read this blog. It ain't about you, yet then again it is about you in that it is about all of us and how we the destroyers of our planet have to wake up and start restoring what we've destroyed. Thank you again for reading, I really do hope something you read here is thought provoking. I also hope that you will join me in the hope that this will be the generation that saves wild salmon and steelhead in the Snake River Basin rather than the generation that watched as they passed into history.

Author

Michael Wells is an award winning journalist and photographer living in Idaho. He can be reached at salmonblog AT yahoo DOT com.